This top-of-the-line Nature Mill Composter is the largest and quietest model

This electric compost bin quickly transforms kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich compost. Perfect for your mudroom, cellar or deck. Simply put food scraps directly into the top chamber, including fruit, vegetables, eggshells, dairy, meat, coffee grounds, grains and more. (Chop scraps into small pieces for faster decomposition.) The composter automatically heats and aerates to speed up the
composting process. In about two weeks you can remove two gallons of compost from the lower chamber. Accepts up to 4 gallons of scraps per week; ideal for a family of 4 to 5 people. Costs about 50 cents per month to operate. For best results, sprinkle food scraps with a handful of carbon-rich material such as coir.

I've my Nature Mill composter (a slightly smaller model than shown here) for about six weeks now. It is working flawlessly, and with a two person household we get a full bin of compost every two weeks. I transfer the compost once a week, and toward the end of that time, it can get a bit smelly. Transferring or adding more baking soda usually mitigates that. Here are my lessons learned so far:

- I've found that in addition to the Brassica family (kale, brussel sprouts, etc) that the instructions say to avoid due to odors, cilantro can be a problem. Avoiding those, the smell is fine for a garage, although I would not use this composter in a kitchen.

- To further mitigate smell, I called my local Starbucks, who participates in the corporate Grounds for Gardens program, and got a big bag of used coffee grounds. When the composter starts smelling, I dump a cup or two of grounds in, and my garage smells like a nicely brewed pot of coffee. I dried the grounds out and keep them in a paper bag by the composter to avoid mold.

- If the composter is on high, there is a constant hum from the heater - again, fine for a garage, but not inside.

- I push the transfer button right before I clean out my fridge for trash pickup, then all the leftover veggies and stale bread that would have gone in the trash goes into the composter instead to give it a start on the next week.

Of course the best part is the compost - Living in a suburb where every lawn is treated monthly, I just couldn't find a source for organic compost to use in my square foot vegetable gardens. After reading about the problems with persistent herbicides in compost lately, this seemed like the best solution, and so far it is working well.

Bought mine and an additional 5 year warranty. It stopped working and they wanted me to order a part from an overseas company (I think China) and pay a $15 shipping fee and watch a video on how to repair it myself. I am a busy mother of four and not a small appliance technician. I paid extra for a five year warranty and they don't honor it. Think twice, does not last!! I love Gardners Supply, not this composter!!

Was this a gift?:

No

Bottom LineNo, I would not recommend this to a friend

Merchant response: I think this customer did not purchase this from us. We do not sell extended warranties and would not charge a customer for replacement parts on a defective item.

This is the best composter on the market. It actually MAKES compost and doesn't just store it while it slowly rots or you dump it into a compost pile. It gets very hot inside thanks to the thick insulating walls and a backup heater inside. And it fans air and filters odors, and of course mixes with a motor. It is definitely the only thing out there like it. My compost compost comes out every two to three weeks on average depending on what I put int. No odors until you empty it and then it basically smells like fertilizer but not in a bad way. Kudos to these people for making such a brilliant product. Only downside is the price. Worth every penny though.

I live in an apartment and there are basically no other options for composting for me. I don't have the ability to make a pile outdoors because I have no yard and only a little fire escape. I looked into the bo ka shi system but that requires a big outdoor space to bury the stuff after it's been collected and fermented in the little container. I even looked at worms but cant get beyond the ick factor and also I heard that they escape and crawl across the kitchen floor so that is really not an option either.

So I took the plunge and bought the nature mill a few years ago and it has been humming along happily ever since. And I mean hum! It makes a little happy sound like a fish tank pump and after a while it quiets down and becomes a sleepy background noise. The compost that comes out is just amazing. It's easy to use and you just follow the instructions which are pretty clear and concise for something as complicated as this. I mean, there are other methods that are much cheaper, but this one is worth every penny.

So far everything has gone as expected. It is a very simple matter to fill it up and let it do it's thing. You can hear the pump (sound like background noise) and once in a while the motor spins (sounds like my ultra sonic tooth brush). You can sometimes even hear the food tumbling around in there. I haven't had any major issues, but maybe this is because I have the newer model. When I ordered it about a year ago they actually contacted me and recommended that I wait about a month for the new model to come out and then it would have a few improvements built in it. It turns out that it was worth the wait because I haven't had any problems what so ever.

One thing that I have learned over time is to cut your food items into small pieces so that they will compost even faster. If you put an entire potato in there, for example, it will take a few weeks to fully break down and it will probably still be lumpy when it ends up in the finished tray. But if you cut it into quarters, then it turns to mush and becomes just like dirt in half the time. Orange peels do not seem to break down maybe because of the acidic acid, but if you chop them up at least they are unnoticeable in the final compost. Egg shells crack into a million small flaky pieces but retain their bright white color which for some people could be unsightly. As for me, basically everything in there goes into my bushes and there has not been a case where we have seen or noticed anything unusual in our garden.

I have only had this machine for about a year so I am holding back on five stars until it really stands the test of time. The warranty has just expired so this is when things tend to happen. So far so good though.

This was my first attempt at composting. I wanted something easy and no work. This is it. I have heard so many complicated things from my friends who have been doing compost for many years and I definitely didn't want something complicated like that. There are quite a few things to learn in the instructions but they are clear and they make sense. I was surprised that you can put almost anything in because I read that other methods that many types of food are not allowed. There is no mess and no odors, until you open the lid and then is smells like vegetable soup. So far it has been very reliable and predictable. I have contacted customer service several times by email only, with questions along the way, and they were very helpful. I am happy with this composter and would recommend it to anyone who wants an easy way to compost.

: I've had this product for about 6 months. I have the new model. The old model is not recommended as it had some reliability issues. It is important to get the newer one, and follow the instructions. I have had very good results with it so far. The compost that results from my kitchen scraps is very dark and granular and spongy like compost should be. Most of the compost that you buy in a store comes from sewage treatment plants who have to get rid of their sludge somehow. The call that compost but really it's not, and it has lots of chemicals and toxins in it. If you make your own compost then you have the benefit of knowing what goes into it. If you eat only organic foods, then you have organic compost. Nothing is better!

I have been using this model for about 2 years. It works very well to turn nearly all of our food scraps into delicious black compost. It is easy to use and the instructions are very clear, although it does take some time to get into the habit of composting this way. For example it can take meat and eggs and cheese which is different than any other form of compostin. However, it can not easily handle certain biological items that other composters can, like yard leaves (they are too big and will jam the machine), broccoli (sulfur compounds cause strong odors), or steak bones (cause jams).

The biggest confusion about this product is which version you have. The older ones were the initial model which did not function very well. Those were clearly the companies first entry into the composting market and just not very good. I got the newer one pictured here and it has the kinks worked out. I strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to compost without the work typically involved.

We have now had this (smallest) unit in our kitchen for 1 full year. Initial start-up took some learning & time, but it has worked very well for scraps from a 2-person household (approx 7 cups/week of finely cut scrap is accummulated over the week in a countertop air tight bin and added to the NM all at once). Every weekend a silcone scraper is used to mix up the contents of bottom container and scrape down the sides of the top container before adding the new material along with 1 cup wood pellets (pet store bedding) and NaHCO3 - I rarely need to "dump" from top to bottom as this happens slowly & automatically over the week. When bottom is full (2-3 weeks) I add to my outdoor compost pile, but plan to add directly to may garden this spring. Others have mentioned troubles with the flaps - I believe this issue depends on the weight of scrap material added - if you put in small quantities of scrap as generated, the weight of scrap is insuffient to hold the flaps closed during turning, so its best to amass a good quantity and limit the number of times you go into the unit.I do wish it could process Citrus and Brassica waste because we eat lots, but most other compost can not handle any dairy, meat or fish! Very happy with this purchase!

I reviewed this machine when I had only used it about a month. I rated it high as it worked so well for awhile. But within another month the mixing fins started staying wide open and the contents fell into the transfer bin half composted. I took the contents out and put them back in the top but again the fins stayed open after one cycle and everything fell through.

Gardeners Supply replaced the unit but the new one started doing the same thing within days. The fins stuck open, the contents fell through and nothing was composted enough to use. We had been extremely careful with this new one, cutting everything up into tiny pieces before putting it in the composter.

I sent an email to Nature Mill asking for a partial refund as the machine was still way under warranty. They refused because I had purchased it from GS. They only honor the warranty if you buy from them. Their explanation stated others had had that problem but I should just forget about the fins and let everything drop down into the transfer bin to compost. Well, it has been well over a month and all the compost is sitting in the bin covered with mold and still in a semi-solid state and unusable as is. And yes, the fins are still wide open. Hmmm, why are they even there?

This is a great idea that just has very poor design. Don't waste your money.

This guide will help you choose the right composter for your situation.

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